Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 1573. page
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How do I show and not tell?
The plot I'm working at happens to be very complicated (too complicated for my own good) and I'm afraid I won't be able to convey all my thoughts and little details without going full information-dump halfway through the book.
Also, a lt of people say "show don't tell" as if this is something everyone is required to say once in a while, yet when asked, they flat out ignore the question and never give an answer, or give an equally meme answer such as "if you would read more, you would know" which certainly...
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Don't *try* and say it. Just say it.
>>7332956
We need more details. Emotions you should show not tell. Plot events you should show not tell. Background information you should tell.
>>7332969
Background information should be a flashback where you show, not tell.
redpill me on mark
racist
You can't restrain the Twain.
>>7332941
i am a clueless surface reader and he used the word nigger in one of his books he is clearly worse than hitler
Naming characters: how do you do it without being cringe worthy?
I have a Irish catholic boy in my novel and I can't get past Sean/Patrick/Brian/Keiran without feeling the cringe factor so badly.
Try 'Owen'
Other people reading your book won't care much about what you name your character, as long as it isn't something really crazy and distracting. Giving a normal Irish name to a person of Irish descent isn't cringe-worthy, it's perfectly fine. Unless you intend for your character's name to have some literary meaning, then naming him something simple sounds like a good idea. You want his personality to be the thing that draws your reader in, the name doesn't really matter.
Use a pet's name for the first name and the street you grew up on as the last name.
Has anyone here actually won a poetry competition before? If so, could you please post your poem? I want inspiration and I want to see the structure, also just a general "post your poetry and critique" thread.
>>7332868
Why not read poetry by an actually good poet as inspiration
Read shakespeare's sonnets or something kek
I have won over 30 poetry competitions
I won a poetry competition for Mabinogi. I think it was supposed to be a love poem about an NPC. I wrote about Ruairi and I won a mousepad. I was pretty young and I was so proud of myself.
>Write a novel about my own life
>It's too honest and disturbing and will alienate me from everyone and my family
How to fictionalise it guys?
or just use pseudonym idiot
Make the character a black female, but otherwise tell the same story.
>>7332843
Make it of people from a different country or culture. Use a pseudonym if and when you publish it.
Where is the best place to start with Derrida?
Don't.
>>7332817
>le meme feminist
>>7332817
Almost as bad as Andrea 'Slaughtering The Image of Women Everywhere' Dworkin
So how is this compared to GR or Ulysses, in terms of difficulty, for a non-native but relatively proficient english speaker?
far 'easier' to read for a non-native speaker, though it has its share of anglicisms and complex language
it's also really, really good
>>7332704
I'm very interested in reading something by him next in my list. Should I read this or J R first? In the sense that which one is more interesting? not necessarily less difficult.
>>7332727
Infinite Jest is His most accessible
Some anon in a thread on /his/ was talking about a direct connection between the narrative on "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller" and some of Barthes and Foucaults themes.
Does anyone know more about this? Google did not help me and I am not familiar enough with Foucault or Barthes to make a connection myself.
You can talk about the book, too. It's one of my favorite books ever written.
>>7332613
bump
>>7332613
I fucking love Calvino.
Invisible Cities is one of the best things I've ever read.
>>7332735
I saw some anon write a really good analysis of Invisible Cities on /lit/ recently but I can't find it in the archive RIP
What's your opinion on Norton Anthologies? I've only ever used them for English courses(American Lit (1400's-1860's), contemporary American lit(post 1945) and for a women's lit class) but I was thinking of picking up a couple of older editions for self study. Are there better Anthologies out there? Am I better off just buying single books? Is there any merit in reading anthologies?
If you're a pleb, which is evidently the case since you're asking, they're good. muh abridgements
>>7332514
I'm more looking for a general overview of periods of literature so I can find authors who are worth looking into outside of the anthology and authors I enjoy, which I've done before during English courses. Obviously it wouldn't be my sole study material.
>>7332499
I've only read (not completely, of course) the English Literature and American Literature one. The ninth edition of the former is quite good, perhaps the best anthology of English literature out there (even better, I would say, than the Oxford, and I'm very partial towards that one).
Single editions are better only if they are very specialized (e.g. Arden Shakespeare, Norton Critical Editions, Hackett one, etc). The good thing about anthologies is the amount of works a single book can encompass. Although...
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I need some truly terrifying horror to read. I want nightmares. I want to be afraid to read.
final bump
>>7331840
Because unlike Kant you have no actual morals of your own and you aren't convicted enough to adopt an entirely foreign set of morals.
>>7332701
OK you spooked me.
What are some of the most ambitious debut novels of all time?
The Crying of Lot 49
>White people doing white people things
>written by an upper class white man
>muh narrative
>muh secrecy
>muh ongoing cult of personality
I'd say Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me" is the most ambitious book of this decade. It's not really a novel, but you take what you can get.
>>7332472
Ulysses.
What is "virtue", /lit/?
kill yourself my man
if you want to talk about philosophy but you're too lazy to even try to pretend like you've read a book go to /his/
Just got this for $5. Just starting to learn about philosophy. Did I do good /lit/?
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/republic-barnes-noble-classics-series-plato/1109919239
Why did you choose barnes and noble edition? Seems pretty expensive and it allegedly has a bad translation.
where you went wrong was paying for a book that's 5000 years old. You're gonna look like a real dingus with the most entry level phil book possible on your bookshelf.
>>7332416
Plato's Republic should be the last thing you read by him, but if you just want to read it for it's own sake or to have a general understanding of his philosophy then go ahead.
So I just read the chapter whereSlothrop fucks the little girl...
What the fuck Pynchon? Is he apedo?
Are you aretard?
>>7332372
HAHA
>>7332366
which girl, Tchitcherine's girl?
Also how is that bad but Katje and Pudding was okay
I fell for the "follow your passion" meme
kys mm
>>7332235
Is this what /lit/ has become? This shit has been posted several fucking times today... Almost makes me want stirnerfags back.
then your passion isn't your passion
peazy
